Nicki Minaj & Friends Cover Vibe Magazine

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Continuing in the new VIBE tradition of split covers, Nicki Minaj is one of June/July’s cover subjects. In the feature titled “Character Study,” written by Siobhan O’Connor and photographed by Jill Greenberg, rap’s latest “it” girl shares some interesting insight to her new found fame, female MCs before her and her weird voices. Check out some experts from the cover story which hits stands June 15.

“People don’t get when you’re off, or you’re having a bad day,” she says, obliquely referring to the photograph that bounced around the blogs of her hand- in-hand with Diddy, looking especially miserable. The speculation was inevitable: Had she been crying? Was she just tired? Are they doing it?

“When I grew up I saw females doing certain things, and I thought I had to do that exactly,” she says. “The female rappers of my day spoke about sex a lot . . . and I thought that to have the success they got, I would have to represent the same thing. When in fact I didn’t have to represent the same thing.”

“I’m not abandoning the funny voices. I just did a crazy tribute to ODB’s ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya,’” she says, perfectly impersonating the late Wu-Clansman. “But it’s coming up more with the album. I had a teacher in elementary who would stand on her table and whisper. We’d all turn around like, ‘What is this lunatic doing?’ But she would achieve what she wanted. She wanted us to stop talking and listen. I feel like I need to mellow it down so people can hear what I have to say.”